Tomsk State University to create materials to process rare metals ore in the polar region

Over the next few years, scientists at the Siberian Institute of Physics and Technology at Tomsk State University (SIPT TSU) will be working to create materials for the processing of rare and rare-earth metal ores. The technology will be applicable in Siberia and in the polar region, the university's website says.

"We have been faced with the government task of developing high-selective materials and an application technology that will allow us to recycle primary mineral products in any natural environment, including extreme conditions," the director of the Innovation and Technology Center of SIPT TSU, Viktor Sachkov, noted.

It is estimated that it will take about three years to develop the material. The technology will be used in mineral processing in remote regions of Siberia and the polar region and in seabed and shelf exploration. SIPT is cooperating with the Russian Academy of Sciences' Federal Research Center for Integrated Studies of the Arctic in Arkhangelsk.

"High-selective materials can also be used in the reclamation of contaminated land and water. This problem is typical of Russia and other countries, where there were environmental disasters similar to Chernobyl, Fukushima and Semipalatinsk. Huge areas of land have been abandoned whereas they can be reclaimed for their agricultural use by means of these materials that can deactivate highly toxic elements," Sachkov added.

"The application technology is quite simple. The sorbent agent becomes active immediately after being placed into the soil. The technology was developed in cooperation with a hydrometallurgical plant and is based on the plant's years of experience. It has been tested by the plant on multi metric ton industrial scales," the university press service reports.